How come the Pre never took off?

Ksanti

Ksanti

Ksanti

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Now other than a severe lack of marketing, I've always wondered why the Pre phones never took off? I'm sure there's a good reason for it (nowadays the app store, but even WP7 is past it, and Android, though similarly aged, is way more app-populated).

Now of course the apps are a huge part of whether it sells, but I guess I'm asking why people didn't develop for it? It's a vicious cycle of no apps = no customers = no developers = no apps, but why did we have the first shortage of apps? The hardware mostly seemed good, and all reviews I've seen really liked the phones with the exception of the lacking app stores.
 
I've never used one in person, so I can't judge, but if the format was so impractical, how come most reviews don't really make much of it? Other than saying the Veer's keyboard is perhaps for those with small fingers, I haven't read too many complaints?
 
I think it was just too much of an uphill struggle for Palm. Whilst the OS was good and the hardware was OK, it was launching into an already crowded marketplace and there wasn't a whole lot that they could do to differentiate it.

It's a shame, because webOS is a fundamentally well-designed, good looking operating system that Android could learn a bit from.
 
The Pre is my backup phone and it is brilliant. The problem is that it was sold on single networks on premium contracts similar to the iphone.
 
Are we thinking the HP backing for Pre3/Veer/Tablet will go well? The Pre3 is on a 1.4Ghz snapdragon, which looks nice.

I'm considering dropping my (god awful) blackberry and going either to the htc chacha or the pre3, unfortunately my contract still the better part of a year on it :S
 
Palm was missing three key ingredients - money, operator relationships and brand power.

The Pre was a moderate success in the US but Palm didn't have the resources to push it abroad. The marketing budget wasn't there and not enough operators were interested in selling it. Outside of North America, Palm is a virtually unknown brand. The one operator in the UK to take the Pre priced it identically to the iPhone.

Ultimately, Palm was going up against behemoths - Apple, Google, Microsoft and Nokia. Palm didn't have the resources or the scale to succeed.
 
Ksanti said:
Are we thinking the HP backing for Pre3/Veer/Tablet will go well? The Pre3 is on a 1.4Ghz snapdragon, which looks nice.

I'm considering dropping my (god awful) blackberry and going either to the htc chacha or the pre3, unfortunately my contract still the better part of a year on it :S
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I'm looking forward to see where HP take webOS, looks great so far.

Oh, the ChaCha is slower than the original Pre :D Avoid that stupid overpriced 'facebook' phone at all costs. The Desire Z is only £260 sim free atm. Bargain! (same gen snapdragon as the pre3 ;))
 
To be honest, whenever I think of the smartphone market, I always completely forget about Palm, and that's coming from someone who has more than just a passing interest in technology. There's no product awareness there at all really.
 
I would have got a palm pre back when it came out, I was well impressed with it, looked awesome but the G1 came out first so I went with that. Good thing I did in retrospect. I don't think palm had the marketing or mobile clout to pull it off, not to mention the lack of apps.

Web OS tablets will be interesting.
 
I really wanted a Pre when they were originally announced but the fact that it was more than 6 months from announcement to the product hitting the shelves, all the hype had died and the interest was gone.

They're doing the same thing with the new ones and the slate too.
 
Single network
Bad marketing (was shocking)
Bad price, no attempt to tell the public why it was worth this amount, bad press launch as well
Bad timing of release date in the UK
 
The hardware just wasnt that good to be honest, not the best camera, bulky phone and slow processor. The latest Pres are an improvement but they just havent gained enough traction, I fear it may be too late. The OS is lovely though, a real pity. (Nokia should have bought it while they could.)
 
Christo said:
The hardware just wasnt that good to be honest, not the best camera, bulky phone and slow processor. The latest Pres are an improvement but they just havent gained enough traction, I fear it may be too late. The OS is lovely though, a real pity. (Nokia should have bought it while they could.)
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The hardware of the Palm Pre was very good. This comment which goes round on the internet is completely wrong.

The Pre came out in February 2009

http://www.gsmarena.com/palm_pre-2726.php

better than the Android flagship phone which came out a few months afterwards

HTC Hero - http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_hero-2861.php

and equivalent to the iPhone 3GS which came out that summer as well

iPhone 3GS - http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_3gs-2826.php
 
ghost101 said:
The hardware of the Palm Pre was very good. This comment which goes round on the internet is completely wrong.

The Pre came out in February 2009

http://www.gsmarena.com/palm_pre-2726.php

better than the Android flagship phone which came out a few months afterwards

HTC Hero - http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_hero-2861.php

and equivalent to the iPhone 3GS which came out that summer as well

iPhone 3GS - http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_3gs-2826.php
Click to expand...

The software ran notoriously had slowdowns - as per reviews, attributed to its underpowered CPU, that was my main point.
 
ghost101 said:
T
The Pre came out in February 2009
Click to expand...

The pre was released mid october in the UK which is akin to doing a Christmas run-up launch. Except they did this with no marketing budget as O2 pushed the iPhone as it made more money for them and they launched both at the same price. Doesn't matter what you think personally, if the customers choice at the same price is an iphone or a pre they arn't going to go for the pre on a whim, it has no image attached.
 
Stupid decision to let O2 have it in the UK as all O2 wanted to sell were iPhones. I actually got a Palm Pre from an O2 shop, I had to argue with them... "No I REALLY don't want a iPhone I want a Pre... no a Pre". And this was the ONLY retailer in the UK who sells it? Of course it'd flop.

Thing is at launch 2 years ago WebOS was better than Android and iOS is NOW. It is insane but true - anyone who has actually used WebOS will agree. Unfortunately it was let down by very very poor hardware. If they could have Open Sourced it and turned a profit it would have killed Android.

WebOS is still the only mobile OS with real true multitasking as you'd find on a proper PC. This is more of a killer feature than the much lauded Flash support Android has over iOS (WebOS also has Flash FYI). Neither Android nor iOS has true multitasking yet. The effect true multi tasking has on the way you use a device is huge, you can be writing more than one email at once, you can kick off a web page (or 2 or 3..) loading and come back to it, you can pause a game and go check your email/web/messenger... And before anyone says "You can do this on Android!" You simply cannot.

The hardware was such a massive let down, I was fine with the keyboard having small agile fingers but I am in quite a minority, I can easily see many if not most people having trouble with it. The shell casing itself lasted me about 3 months before it simply started falling apart - how can you sell a 18 month contract with a phone that lasts 3 months? I had to get it replaced inside the first week due to build defects (stuck pixels on screen).
 
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JBod said:
The effect true multi tasking has on the way you use a device is huge, you can be writing more than one email at once, you can kick off a web page (or 2 or 3..) loading and come back to it, you can pause a game and go check your email/web/messenger... And before anyone says "You can do this on Android!" You simply cannot.
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I don't know about you, but I can and do that kind of multitasking with android every day, which part of that scenario does not work for you on android? I pop out of games every day and check emails/websites etc...
 
I was really stoked when I first saw the Pre/webOS. The biggest problem for me from a consumer perspective, is that it took so long to make it to market (especially in the UK) that it was outnumbered by lots of other devices and hype by the time it was available.

The biggest strength of Apple and iOS is that they announce it to a huge fanfare before they announce "And it's available for $xxx starting today..."

This is something Android(and android OEMs), WP7 and webOS need to compete with IMO.
 
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